Interview Wasteland 2 Publicity Blitz: Brian Fargo and Chris Avellone Interviews

[Infinitron]

Tags: Brian Fargo; Chris Avellone; InXile Entertainment; Wasteland 2

With the conclusion of Brian Fargo's media tour in Europe and Chris Avellone's visit to AVCon in Australia, a ton of new Wasteland 2 interviews/previews have been published across the Internet. They tend to focus on describing the game's reactivity-centric design philosophy, along with a variety of examples of said reactivity. A few of the interviews, such as the ones at Eurogamer and Gamasutra, also contain some behind-the-scenes information about the game's development process, including budget details, which is pretty interesting.

Here's a list of all the interviews I could find, several of which are in video format:

Brian Fargo:

Rock Paper Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/05/wasteland-2-release (part 1 of 2)
Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-05-the-long-journey-of-wasteland-2
PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2460...-pistol-packing-post-apocalyptic-priests.html
Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...lessons_learned_in_developing_Wasteland_2.php
Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/wasteland-2-could-be-the-proper-next-act-for-fallout-1616300365
VG247: http://www.vg247.com/2014/08/05/wasteland-2-pc-linux-mac-video-interview (video)
Polygon: http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/5/5937435/wasteland-2-gameplay-launch
Destructoid: http://www.destructoid.com/father-o...t-your-fans-and-revive-a-classic-279094.phtml
PC Gamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/wasteland-2-hands-on-following-the-hobo-code
Strategy Informer: http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/wasteland2/510/interview.html
MMORPG: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/1014/feature/8774/Wasteland-2-The-Rabbit-Hole-Goes-Deep.html

German:

Computer Bild: http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cbs-Vorschau-PC-Wasteland-2-10500682.html
IGN Deutschland: http://de.ign.com/wasteland-2-pc/93055/preview/article/review
Gamona: http://www.gamona.de/games/wasteland-2,vorschau-pc:article,2504167.html
4Players: http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PC-CDROM/Vorschau/30252/80636/0/Wasteland_2.html (video)
Stern.de: http://www.stern.de/digital/spiele/...d-sammeln-fuer-den-weltuntergang-2128675.html
Golem.de: http://www.golem.de/news/wasteland-2-fallout-fuer-toaster-reparierer-1408-108349.html (video)
PC Games Hardware: http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Waste...chlag-in-Shut-Up-And-Take-My-Money-46-1131408 (video, includes a fairly long gameplay demonstration)
GameStar: http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/wasteland-2/news/gamestar_tv,47852,3058600.html (video)
GamersGlobal: http://www.gamersglobal.de/preview/wasteland-2-0

Chris Avellone:

AusGamers: http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3462738
GameSpot: http://www.gamespot.com/videos/why-wasteland-2-is-an-rpg-that-lets-you-kill-absol/2300-6420632 (video)
​

inXile also released six new screenshots of the game's Los Angeles section for this promotion. Check 'em out:

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So, Wasteland 2 reactivity, not just Ag Center vs Highpool after all. Looks like things are shaping up nicely.

 

[lurker3000]

Seeing the Hollywood sign makes me wonder If i can be a porn star again.

 

[Volourn]

Hoepfully when this comes out the nonsense bullshit of 'DOS is best rpg ever' will stop once and for all.

 

[Surf Solar]

That shot with the roaches looks so hideous. Quite embarassing to release that as media that is supposed to let the game shine

 

[himmy]

I like how we complain about developers not being deceptive ENOUGH with pre-release screenshots now.

 

[jdinatale]

​

Jesus, Chris Avelone has the EXACT same "You'd-think-I'm-a-homosexual-but-I'm-not" accent that Joshua E. Sawyer has. Is this a California thing? Please tell me not everyone speaks this way out there.​

 

[Ivan]

we do

 

[Tigranes]

Cool cool. Based on the beta I'm not likely to love this as much as DOS but still should be a fun romp.

 

[Achiman]

When he says "you can kill any quest giver, but you have to accept the consequences" I'm assuming it's like in Morrowind, where after you killed a "main quest" npc it would say "you broke the game arsehole, reload" (not exact quotes).

Related to that is most of the time in RPG's, being a psychopath/sociopath is fine, but expect to be gimped and receive less xp and limited or less interesting quest lines.
It's often not that I want to be the goodie-goodie in RPGS, just that the game is designed that way for optimum play.
I think it might be something to do with the game creators subconsciously not wanting you to pull the whole thing off the rails at every opportunity and "play the quests the way they were intended".
Just my two cents worth.
I am very much looking forward to the second week of September or w/e (Thursday) the game comes out on.

 

[jdinatale]

(not exact quotes)

Thanks for telling me, I would have never knew you were paraphrasing otherwise.

 

[Achiman]

(not exact quotes)

Thanks for telling me, I would have never knew you were paraphrasing otherwise.

I would explain sarcasm too, but you've got that down!

 

[Carrion]

Fargo's interview is a bit too full of market talk ("infinite possibilities" à la Bethesda and "completely different experience for every player" à la BioWare), but if they can really pull off stuff like being able to actually become an enemy of the Desert Rangers, they deserve some major fucking credit.

 

[Brother None]

When he says "you can kill any quest giver, but you have to accept the consequences" I'm assuming it's like in Morrowind, where after you killed a "main quest" npc it would say "you broke the game arsehole, reload" (not exact quotes).

Nope. There is no such thing as unkillable main quest NPCs or "you broke the game" screens. There are alternate end-game states, like Vargas is the main quest-giver so if he's hostile you turn into another storybranch to fight and defeat the Rangers, and if you kill him that counts as a game victory state with endgame slides and everything.

 

[Zed]

When he says "you can kill any quest giver, but you have to accept the consequences" I'm assuming it's like in Morrowind, where after you killed a "main quest" npc it would say "you broke the game arsehole, reload" (not exact quotes).

Nope. There is no such thing as unkillable main quest NPCs or "you broke the game" screens. There are alternate end-game states, like Vargas is the main quest-giver so if he's hostile you turn into another storybranch to fight and defeat the Rangers, and if you kill him that counts as a game victory state with endgame slides and everything.

What happens if you kill both sides?

 

[FeelTheRads]

What happens if you kill both sides?

The Martians win.

 

[Brother None]

What happens if you kill both sides?

The two sides in that scenario are your group vs the Rangers, so there isn't really a both to kill there. You can kill everyone else in Arizona if you like. The endings probably wouldn't be too cheerful.

 

[Kem0sabe]

With the amount of combat present in the game, it's shame it wasnt developed further before release. What's the realistic chance we get combat talents, aimed shots and character specific special abilities in post support? Brother None

 

[Ringhausen]

He looks good.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Hah, just noticed a couple of my models in the roach screenshot.

Best game ever!

 

[Junmarko]

People saying 2014 has been the worst year for games obviously don't own a PC.

 

[Infinitron]

Added a couple of new German previews to OP.

There's also this podcast: http://www.gamezone.de/Gamezone-Pod...Die-Siedler-und-Stargast-Brian-Fargo-1131458/

 

[Zetor]

Martians? Pfff, it's all about the Serpioids.

Speaking of which, WL2 better have some Serpioid easter eggs... or ELSE!

 

[Wizfall]

That shot with the roaches looks so hideous. Quite embarassing to release that as media that is supposed to let the game shine

It's quite hideous yea but only the roaches (if they were a bit smaller it would be much better), the room is fine IMO.
A good thing i did not play W2 at all, improvements seems to have been important.
Still not much hope about the exploration part and the shamefull corridor design of the maps but the rest seems ok.

Watching the videos above i find the graphics truly good (don't like much the moving camera and camera angle though), character creation screen included.
I don't get at all the critics about the graphics and i don't mean by that "graphics are not the most important thing" crap, W2 graphics are more than fine.
I have not play any recent video game though (most recent one being Shadowrun) so it may be that graphics standard of the younger generation have changed so much that something i find nice is ugly for them now.
No wonder then that video games budget have exploded.
Eventually the technical aspect of W2 seems very good to me (except again the moving camera).

 

[l3loodAngel]

Hoepfully when this comes out the nonsense bullshit of 'DOS is best rpg ever' will stop once and for all.

Judging by feedback from betas its not going to happen any time soon or at all...